The North Vancouver Regional Ecumenical Support Team (REST) is a partnership of 10 churches and individuals who have come together to support the sponsorship of refugees. The group operates in close cooperation with the Anglican Diocese of New Westminster.

Monday, March 21, 2016

Fundraising posted March 21, 2016

Good morning everyone,

Our family is settled nicely in their home. The community continues to be so generous in their support. Here are some of the generous donations:
-Many, many trips to and from appointments from our wonderful team of drivers and translators.
-Many hours of phone support and translation from our dedicated Sawsan Salih.
-Reduced rental of the house they live in for this year.
-Many more offers of furniture and clothing than our family is able to use.
-A Grouse Mountain yearlong pass.
-Glasses for Ibrahim, donated by Mt. Seymour Optometry, with additional donation of the lens grinding services by the company who does that.
-Reading glasses and optical eye exams for all of the family by Mt. Seymour Optometry.
-Dental exams, cleaning, and dental care provided by the wonderful Dr. Minko Bach and his team of Dental Hygenists.
-Offer of a family pass to Science World from the Rotary Club.
-Free enrollment for Ahmad in the North Shore Flag Football league.
-Regular English tutoring from our excellent team of tutors, who visit 3 times every week!
-A violin for Ibrahim and electric piano, with weekly lessons from the lovely Danielle.
-Bus training for Nour, so that she can get to school and back safely from Rhoda, who is a retired bus driver.
-Many helpful services from the Blueridge Community Association
-Excellent, caring services from Blueridge Elementary School, Windsor Secondary school, and North Shore Multicultural Society, and the physicians involved in care of our family.
-All of the helpful people, organizations, and churches who have been working hard to raise funds for this family and our other upcoming sponsorships.

MANY OTHER PEOPLE who have helped in countless ways! You are all amazing and this family is extremely grateful for all of your support.

A huge thank you to all of the people and organizations that have made our family feel so welcome in Canada. They told me this weekend that they consider themselves Canadians now, rather than Syrians. However, when they talk about Syria, I still see teary looks quite often, especially as they still have family there who continue to be in danger.

Thanks to all of the donations, we are able to keep the costs down for our sponsorship. We are still working toward our goal of $75,000 and we have raised $50,000 of that already. So, that leaves us with $25,000 that still needs to be raised. We can do this through a combination of individual donations, either in one time donations or monthly pledges. Those monthly pledges really help, as they are not too onerous for the donor, but do add up over time for our fund. There is an option to have automatic withdrawal from a bank account or credit card, to make things even easier. For fundraising events, we have had many successful events. One of the simpler ones was the Pub Night, which raised just over $5500! This was not too difficult to organize, and could certainly be done again if someone would like to take it on at some point. If there are any fundraising plans in the works, please let me know so that I can publicize them and if there are any questions or you'd like some advice on how to run a fundraiser, please get in touch as well: smuirslp@gmail.com.

1 comment:

It is such a gift to work with this group of committed groups and individuals, who strive to make life better for regular folks. It is humbling to feel the love and the load being shared. Thanks to all, every day:) Cynthia